This application claims priority to Taiwanese Invention Patent Application No. 111103727, filed on Jan. 27, 2022.
The disclosure relates to a mold, and more particularly to a pulp mold.
Referring to
When pulp 2 is accumulated in layers on the outer surface 12 of the core 10, suction air flow generated by the negative pressure can pass through the hollow chamber 11 and the fluid communication passages 14 to remove water in the pulp 2, and then set the shape thereof after hot pressing; while blowing air flow generated by the positive pressure can blow away the shaped finished product through the hollow chamber 11 and the fluid communication passages 14.
Although the aforesaid pulp mold 1 can achieve its intended purpose, it has the following drawbacks:
1. During suctioning of the pulp 2 by the fluid communication passages 14, the pulp 2 is likely to suck into the corresponding fluid communication passage 14 and formed barbs proximate to an end of the inner surface 13, so that it is not easy to demold, which reduces the yield of finished products.
2. Under the same volume, the size of the volume of the hollow chamber 11 will determine the quantity of air flow and the speed of heat dissipation. When the volume of the hollow chamber 11 is large and the wall thickness of the pulp mold 1 is thin, although the quantity of the air flow can be increased to improve the water discharge and demolding effects, because the wall thickness is thin, heat energy is easily dissipated and cannot be collected, thereby affecting the hot pressing and shaping effect. On the contrary, when the volume of the hollow chamber 11 is small and the wall thickness of the pulp mold 1 is thick, although the effects of heat collection and preservation can be improved, there will be a problem of not easy to demold due to small quantity of air flow.
Referring to
However, this kind of pulp mold 3 processed by turning, drilling and linear cutting is expensive. That is, the sum of the linear cutting cost of only one pulp mold 3 and the turning and drilling cost of the pulp mold 3 are high. Taking one linear cutting machine as an example, the producing time of each pulp mold 3 takes about two days, not only is the cost high and the processing time long, but also the linear grooves 32 in comparison with the fluid communication passages 14 of
Therefore, an object of the present disclosure is to provide a pulp mold that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to this disclosure, a pulp mold is configured to produce a container formed from pulp. The container includes a container main body, and an annular flange formed on one end of the container main body. The pulp mold includes a mold main body extending along a longitudinal axis and having an inner surface, an outer surface, a plurality of channel grooves, and a plurality of air holes.
The inner surface defines a chamber that is suitable for air to flow in and out. The chamber has an opening, and is divided into a plurality of chamber sections decreasing in diameters gradually and upwardly from the opening along the longitudinal axis. The outer surface is opposite to the inner surface. The channel grooves extend inwardly from the outer surface toward the inner surface, and extend along a length of the outer surface. Each channel groove does not communicate with the chamber. The air holes extend from the outer surface to the inner surface, and pass through the channel grooves. The air holes communicate the chamber with the outside.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
Referring to
The inner surface 52 defines a chamber 51 extending along the longitudinal axis (X) and suitable for air to flow in and out. The chamber 51 has an opening 511, and is divided into four chamber sections 512 decreasing in diameters gradually and upwardly from the opening 511 along the longitudinal axis (X). In this embodiment, the inner surface 52 includes three step portions 521 spaced apart from each other along the longitudinal axis (X). Each step portion 521 cooperates with the inner surface 52 to define a corresponding one of the chamber sections 512.
The outer surface 53 is opposite to the inner surface 52, and includes a conical surface portion 531 surrounding the longitudinal axis (X), and an end surface portion 532 connected to a narrow end of the conical surface portion 531 that is opposite to the opening 511. The conical surface portion 531 forms a first angle (θ1) with the longitudinal axis (X). The first angle (θ1) ranges from 3 to 15 degrees, and preferably, 5 degrees.
The channel grooves 54 are formed on the conical surface portion 531 of the outer surface 53, and extend along a length thereof. Specifically, the channel grooves 54 extend inwardly from the conical surface portion 531 toward the inner surface 52, and are distributed equidistantly around the conical surface portion 531. The number of the channel grooves 54 ranges from 3 to 24. Preferably, the number of the channel grooves 54 is 16. Each channel groove 54 does not communicate with the chamber 51, and has a depth of 0.1 to 5 mm, and a width of 0.1 to 3 mm. Preferably, the depth is 0.6 mm, and the width is 1.5 mm.
The air holes 55 extend from the conical surface portion 531 to the inner surface 52 to communicate the chamber 51 with the outside. In this embodiment, a portion of the air holes 55 pass through the channel grooves 54, and are arranged at equal intervals along an extending direction of the channel grooves 54, while the other portion of the air holes 55 pass through the end surface portion 532. Each air hole 55 has a diameter of 0.5 to 3 mm, and preferably, 1.5 mm. An extending direction of each air hole 55 passing through a corresponding channel groove 54 forms a second angle (02) with a reference plane (C) perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (X). The second angle (02) ranges from 20 to 60 degrees, and preferably, 45 degrees. Each channel groove 54 communicates with more than five air holes 55.
The annular protrusion 57 extends outwardly and radially from a wide end of the conical surface portion 531.
The annular flange 58 has a top surface 581, and an annular recess 582 extending inwardly from the top surface 581 and immediately adjacent to the annular protrusion 57.
To make the pulp mold 5, the chamber sections 512 with different diameters, the channel grooves 54, the air holes 55, the annular protrusion 57 and the annular recess 582 can be completed by using only the processing methods, such as turning, milling grooves, and drilling, so that not only is the processing easy and the processing speed fast to produce about eight to twelve pulp molds 5 in one day, but also the production cost of each pulp mold 5 can be reduced to a minimum.
The pulp mold 5 is suitable for connecting with a vacuum pump (not shown) to generate negative pressure, and is suitable for connecting with a pressure pump (not shown) to generate positive pressure.
Referring to
What is important is that, when the suction air flow passes through the chamber 51 and the air holes 55 to remove the water in the pulp, the channel grooves 54 of this disclosure which do not communicate with the chamber 51 can be used to temporarily receive the pulp therein and prevent the pulp from passing through the air holes 55 to form barbs, so that the above-mentioned finished product after being hot-pressed and shaped can be easily blown away from the pulp mold 5, thereby achieving the purpose of demolding and improving the yield of the good product.
With reference to
When a plurality of containers 4 are stacked (only two are shown in
It is worth to mention herein that, if the first angle (θ1) is smaller than 3 degrees, because the draft angle is too small, the yield of good products is extremely low, and is not easy to produce good products, thereby leading to the stack height (H) of the containers 4 becoming large, the number of packaging bags becoming less, the volume becoming large, and increase in the transportation cost. On the other hand, if the first angle (θ1) is larger than 15 degrees, although the stack height (H) of the containers 4 can be decreased, the height of the finished product is easily limited, making the volume of the container 4 becomes small.
Moreover, although the container 4 produced by the pulp mold 5 has roughly visible stripes corresponding to the channel grooves 54, it will not affect the function of use and the appearance of the product. It is worth noting that, if the depth of each channel groove 54 is less than 0.1 mm and the width thereof is less than 0.1 mm, although the traces of the stripes are not obvious, the problems of barbs and demolding cannot be effectively resolved; and, if the depth of each channel groove 54 is greater than 5 mm and the width thereof is greater than 3 mm, the traces of the stripes are relatively obvious, and although the problems of barbs and demolding can be resolved, when the number of production times is large, it is easy to cause gap to become plugged with pulp, so that demolding cannot be achieved easily and smoothly.
If the second angle (02) is smaller than 20 degrees, the flow direction of air is close to the reference plane (C) (close to a horizontal state), because the thrust along the longitudinal axis (X) is not enough to detach the finished product from the pulp mold 5, demolding of the finished product is not easy; and, if the second angle (02) is greater than 60 degrees, the flow direction of the air is close to the longitudinal axis (X) (close to a vertical state and abut on the conical surface portion 531), because the thrust acting on the container main body 41 is not enough to separate the container main body 41 from the pulp mold 5, demolding of the finished product is also not easy.
It should be noted that the depth of the pulp mold 5 is not limited to that shown in
Further, the chamber sections 512 that gradually decrease in diameters are not limited to being correspondingly defined by the inner surface 52 of the mold main body 50 and the step portions 521. In other variations of this embodiment, as shown in
From the aforesaid description, the advantages of this disclosure can be summarized as follows:
1. The channel grooves 54 that do not communicate with the chamber 51 can be used to temporarily receive the pulp therein so as to prevent the pulp from passing through the air holes 55 to form barbs, so that the finished product produced by this disclosure can be easily demolded, and the yield of good product can be improved.
2. Through the design of the chamber sections 512 that gradually decrease in diameters upwardly from the opening 511 along the longitudinal axis (X), the quantity of air flow can be effectively increased, sufficient thickness can be retained, and the best balance between easy heat accumulation, heat preservation, improve drainage and mold release effects can be obtained.
3. Since the pulp mold 5 of this disclosure can be made by only using the processing methods, such as turning, milling grooves, and drilling, not only the processing speed is fast that about eight to twelve pulp molds 5 can be produced in one day, but also the production cost of each pulp mold 5 can be reduced to a minimum.
4. Since the channel grooves 54 do not communicate with the chamber 51, and the chamber 51 communicates with the outside through the air holes 53, there will be no disadvantage of releasing the pressure too quickly.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is considered the exemplary embodiment, it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111103727 | Jan 2022 | TW | national |